At a press conference on Aug. 12, 1986, President Reagan said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
The most terrifying words in the 21st century were spoken last week by “MAGA Mike” — the nickname immediately given new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) by both Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and former President Donald Trump.
Appearing with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Johnson told the world: “Someone asked me today in the media, they said…’People are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it — that’s my worldview.”
Woah! Stop! Read that again. Let that sink in. It’s shocking that the man entrusted with the powerful position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line for the presidency of the United States, would say he’s guided by the Bible, not by the Constitution. Does he know anything about American history? That statement itself is so un-American it should scare everyone — Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or non-believer.
It’s contrary to everything we learned from our Founders, most of whom were deists, not Christians. They went out of their way to establish a new country based on the principles of natural law, and not on the tenets of any religious creed. We are not a Christian nation. James Madison fought to keep the word “God” out of the Constitution — in order, he argued, that there be “not even a shadow of a right in the general government to intermeddle with religion.”
Nor, as he and Thomas Jefferson also argued, for religion to intermeddle with government. They built a “wall of separation” between church and state, which Johnson and fellow evangelicals are determined to tear down, with disastrous consequences.
Johnson’s embrace is the most brazen abuse of the Bible since Trump held up his Bible (upside down) outside St. John’s Church during the Black Lives Matter protests. But Johnson’s flaunting of the Bible is much more dangerous. Because, unlike Trump, Johnson presumably has read the Bible and takes every word of it seriously. The danger, of course, is that Johnson will follow the Bible, and not the Constitution, in making public policy decisions. Which is not without precedent.
For over 100 years, Christian preachers used the story of Noah as told in Genesis 9 to justify the institution of slavery. It was all spelled out in the Bible, they said, under the “Curse of Ham,” whereby certain races were destined for perpetual slavery. Slaveholders weren’t doing anything wrong, the preachers insisted. They were merely doing God’s will.
Today, the Bible is more often used to justify opposition to homosexuality. Sometimes to the extreme. In June 2022, based on Leviticus 19’s declaration that “if a man lies with a man as with a woman” they “shall surely be put to death,” Texas Pastor Dillon Awes told his congregation: “These people should be put to death…They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.”
Fortunately, most Christians don’t go that far, but they do cite the Bible as justification for other forms of discrimination. Citing Scripture, Johnson himself, as a former attorney for The Alliance Defending Freedom, not only condemned homosexuality as “sinful and destructive” and opposed same-sex marriage but authored a brief arguing that homosexual activity should be criminalized.
Enough already. The Bible has its place, but not in making public policy decisions. God forbid! For that, lawmakers should stick to the Constitution.
Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”